#anne's thoughts

[dialectical--revolution]

Woke up to both my legs falling a sleep. Managed to get sensation again but it scared the shit out of me.

Health anxiety just screamed: this is it.

My health anxiety is a fucking drama queen.

[annelisreadingroom]

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great weekend. I'm mostly staying at home today, so it's a good time to post about The Story of How We Met by @authorivyoakes.

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The author was kind enough to send me a free copy of this novellet, which I really enjoyed reading, as it's a cute YA story that can easily be read in one sitting.

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The Story of How We Met introduces you to a small town called Halley and a teenage girl Sarah who lives there. The story tackles questions that many young adults face when they first start getting into dating. Questions such as - should you tell your crush you like them, and what's the best way do it.

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For Sarah these questions are particularly hard as she finds herself falling for her friend's new boyfriend. In the end, she has to figure out if following her heart is worth risking the friendship.

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This novellet is an introduction to the Halley series which, according to my understanding, will be a YA contemporary series set in the town of Halley. With the novellet you get a sneak peak to the first book in the series, so you get a pretty good idea what the series is going to be about. I don't want to give away too many details, so you should just check it out yourselves. 😁

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If anyone is looking for a new cute contemporary or simply a quick and fun read, you may want to consider giving this novellet a try. 😊

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne's Thoughts on A Touch of Magic by Janina Frank

Thank you for Dorothy Dreyer and of course Snowy Wings Publishing for sending me this anthology of magical short stories in exchange for an honest review.

A Touch of Magic is a delightful collection of short stories about magic in all its different forms. I must admit I had my doubts about it as I'm usually not a big fan of anthologies, but I must also say that I ended up being pleasantly surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories. The stories are super quick to read and they cover a variety of topics I didn't expect them to.

This book proves that magic doesn't have to be all about witches and wizards, but that there are as many ways to approach the topic as there are authors who want to write about it. The heroes and heroines in these stories include not only traditional witches but also alchemists, artisans, and space witches, which is refreshing to say the least. Yes, space witches! Am I the only person who didn't know there are such creatures as space witches?

Naturally, I had my favorites in this collection and not every single story was for me but, overall, I think this was a very pleasant read. And now the best thing about this book:

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Not all the stories have happy endings!

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne’s Thoughts on Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy edited by Ameriie

Stars: 4/5

I was excited to read this book because so many amazing writers contributed to this project and, of course, because the cover is gorgeous. I was also curious about the concept of booktubers coming up with prompts for the authors. It was the first time I read some of the authors included in this book, which was great because now I have some new authors whose works I definitely want to read in the future. I liked it that every author had a different idea of how to look at villains and many of the stories had interesting twists and turns that made it hard to predict, who the villains were and how they ended up becoming villains. 

SPOILER ALERT! I found this book to be an easy and quick read with stories that held my interest quite effectively. Naturally, I had my favorites stories but I didn't find any of the stories terribly boring or disappointing. Some stories were a bit confusing and I wasn't always sure what was going on but that was okay. You can't realistically expect to love every single story in an anthology. My favorite stories were probably Beautiful Venom by Cindy Pon and You, You, It's All About You by Adam Silvera. Beautiful Venom I chose because I loved, how Cindy Pon combined the setting that reminded me of imperial China with the story of Medusa. You, You, It's All About You I chose because it was simply creepy and the main character was honestly kind of scary. She didn't seem to feel any remorse no matter what she did. What I didn't really care about in this book were the texts written by the booktubers. It was definitely fair to give them the opportunity to explain, how they came up with the prompts or tell what they thought about the stories, but I felt like their texts weren't really necessary. Most of them felt like blog posts to me and I just felt like they didn't need to be in the book. Not that they would have necessarily bored me but they weren't that interesting either. Don't get me wrong, these people are great booktubers and I fully support them. I think the idea of having them come up with the prompts was great and definitely worth trying. Overall, this was a nice read and I think anyone who loves villains should give it a try.

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne’s Thoughts on Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Stars: 1

DNF at 33%. I wonder if I'm being too hard on this book, giving it just one star. I hate rating books one star but I didn't finish it so... Anyway, I feel like I've given this book a fair chance. I've taken breaks and picked it up again, but every time I read it I come to a conclusion that it's not for me. The writing isn't bad, and the world building is okay but I have issues with the plot and the characters. I just can't make myself like or care about any of the characters. (Except maybe Kiyo, the main character's love interest, because he's a kitsune.) FROM NOW ON THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! When it comes to the plot, my main problem is that most of the story seems to be about different gentry trying to either rape the main character or get her to have sex with them voluntarily. I feel like the story goes from one failed rape attempt to another. Failed, because somehow Kiyo always shows up to save the main character in time. Not sure how because, if I remember correctly, he doesn't even live in the same state with her. I'm also not sure why the main character (Eugenie! Finally remembered her name) always needs saving when she's supposed to be this bad ass shaman who's killed more gentry than any other shaman. Yet she always seems to need help and get caught off guard so that she has to fight in a bathrobe or with no clothes at all. When Eugenie is not fighting with the gentry, she spends her time hating them and denying the fact that she is attracted to at least two of them. And of course, she has these marathon sex sessions with Kiyo that go on forever. The dude has some weird gentry stamina and can go on for god knows how long. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Eugenie is the daughter of the most powerful gentry king that ever existed. When that's revealed to her, she has to accept the fact that she is half gentry which means she is part something she's been taught to hate all her life. Oh the distress! (Yawn). Okay, I know my review is not very flattering so I want to emphasize that this is just my opinion of the book. The story clearly isn't for me, which is unfortunate because I love Richelle Mead's other books. I think everyone who considers reading this book should give a fair chance and go to it with an open mind. Don't hate it just because you read a review written by someone who didn't like it. We all have our opinions and preferences.

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne’s Thoughts on New World: Ashes by Jennifer Wilson

Stars: 5/5

New World Ashes is a dark and compelling sequel to New world Rising. I loved New World Rising so I guess it's needless to say I was excited to read this book. I was definitely not disappointed. New World Ashes starts right, where New World Rising left off and it focuses on Phoenix's experiences inside the Sanctuary. SPOILER ALERT! I love dark books so I was beyond thrilled to read about Phoenix's time in captivity. I kept wondering how she was going to survive and whether Mouse and Triven would come back for her. I was also constantly wondering what Phoenix's grandfather would decide to put her through next. The discovery that Phoenix had grown up in military training definitely explained a lot. To be honest, before I learned about Phoenix's past I never even stopped to think about how she was able to survive so well in Tartarus. It was only when I read about her training that I realized she really was oddly skilled at surviving among the tribes. Phoenix went through some tough times in this book and I liked it that she didn't recover immediately after her escape. I felt like it made sense for her to suffer from post-traumatic stress and I was happy the author took that into consideration. I liked it that we got to know the backstories of many different characters in this book. Ryker, who is a pretty interesting character, emerged from Phoenix's past and we finally got to know why Mouse can't speak. Mouse's brother is quite awful. He's definitely not going to get any brother-of-the-year awards any time soon. I don't understand how he could treat his sister or any of the other kids like that. I don't think he feels any remorse at all. All he seems to care about is power and his position in Fandrin's inner circle. I bet we'll see him in the next book fighting aside Fandrin. Oh, and I definitely want to know what happened to Ryker. What did Fandrin do to him? Did he know Ryker was working for the rebels or was he just suspecting him? I would definitely recommend this series to everyone who loves dystopian stories. If you loved New World Rising, you need to read this too! You will not be disappointed. I know I wasn't and I can't wait to read New World Inferno when it comes out later this year. Yes, if you didn't know, New World Inferno is coming out this fall and it's now available for preorder. Yay!

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne’s Thoughts on Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Stars: 4/5

Starcrossed is a mixture of Greek mythology, romance and high school. Well, the high school part is not that dominant, but the characters do occasionally attend their classes. Overall, this book was an interesting read but it definitely had its flaws. Some of the plot twists had me grinding my teeth and by the end of the book I was quite sick of Helen and Lucas. If you're the type of reader who can get past selfish and extremely annoying characters as well as 'the main character is super beautiful and has surprising powers' type of plots, then you should read this book. You're good to go. SPOILER ALERT! I found the demigods and Greek mythology the most interesting aspects of this story. The only demigod series I had read before this one was the Percy Jackson series and I was happy to discover that Starcrossed was nothing like Percy Jackson. Don't get me wrong. I like Percy Jackson. I just didn't want this book to be too similar to Percy because that would have been boring. I especially liked the first hundred or so pages of the story, where Helen and Lucas were inclined to kill each other. When they got over the all consuming rage, they got a bit too into each other for my taste. I also felt like the ending dragged out a little. When the final battles began, I was already waiting for the book to end. I would have been fine with the book ending with Helen and her mother leaving the island. All the fighting and scheming in the end just felt unnecessary. All it did was make me dislike more characters than I already did at that point. However, I liked it that the book did not end too happily. Now there are some issues for the characters to work out in the next book. My favorite character was probably Cassandra. She was pretty cool with all that oracle stuff going on inside her. It's sad that she can never have a normal life, but she took it quite well. I guess she had accepted her fate. In a lot of ways she was much more mature than all the older members of the family. Helen and Lucas were alright in the beginning, but when they started to fall in love they became unbearable. It was almost impossible not to yell at them when they were keeping secrets and pitying themselves. I mean, why couldn't Lucas tell Helen why they can't be together? It's not that hard! Just open your mouth and tell her it will start a war! AAARGH! I also couldn't stand how they kept saying they would not make the same mistakes Paris and Helen of Troy made, yet they still planned on running away together. Oh, and when Helen happened to hear that Lucas 'would never touch her', she went on sulking for days. Why did she automatically think that Lucas meant she's repulsive? She didn't even consider other options. And let's not forget how she completely ignored her friends and family, when she was not allowed to be with Lucas. But of course, life had no meaning without Lucas. Please Helen, there's more to life than one damn Lucas! I must say that besides Lucas, I quite liked the Delos family. I also liked Claire until she and Jason started to crush on each other. I mean, there are plenty of girls in the world. Why would Jason happen to fall in love with Helen's best friend? 'The other supernatural character falls for the best friend' types of plots make me want to scream every time. It's so unrealistic and annoying. If Ariadne falls in love with Matt in the next book I will stop reading. I seriously will. Matt is completely non-existent. He has no personality and he didn't even have any kind of important role in this book. Yeah, and I still have to mention that Claire and Matt had surprisingly little trouble accepting that their friends are demigods. They didn't even try to argue. They just accepted it. They weren't even really surprised. How convenient. I would say that if you can get past everything that is wrong with this book, you will probably enjoy it. I was often annoyed while reading the story, but I still enjoyed it. There's a lot of good in it too. I liked the different houses of the demigods, and the Furies definitely made the story more interesting. I also liked how complex the family affairs of the demigods were. So by all means, give this book a try if you feel like it. :)

[annelisreadingroom]

Anne’s Thoughts on Half Lies by Sally Green

Stars: 3

First of all, I love the colors of the cover. <3 Secondly, I liked the story alright. It wasn't extremely interesting because not much happened, but it did offer some welcome insight into Gabriel's life before the events of Half Bad. Gabriel and Arran were my favorite characters in Half Bad, so I was happy to learn more about Gabriel's time in America. SPOILER ALERT! This story focuses mostly on Michele, which is probably why I only gave it three stars. The truth is, I didn't like Michele that much. She was a little annoying. I understand she was bored and lonely, but it's not like she had to be so whiny. Most of the time she was complaining about her dad, about Gabriel leaving her alone, about not being able to see Sam, about being bored and about god knows what else. Yeah, and when she finally made friends with Caitlin, she used her as a messenger. Caitlin's life had to be pretty boring because she had time to deliver messages several times a week. No wonder she betrayed Michele. She probably got sick of being an unpaid messenger, when she could have just taken a job as a bike messenger and gotten paid for it. Or maybe she simply wanted some excitement in her life, so she decided to work with Ethan. Sam, on the other hand, was dead boring. He had no personality. All he did was work and write those damn letters. I also think Michele and Sam should have understood to stay away from each other after Ethan got beaten. But oh well, they had to meet one more time even if they knew how dangerous it was. I'm not saying Michele deserved to die for that, but they really should have been more careful. Oh, and I would love to know, why Caitlin did betray Michele. Was she jealous? Did she feel unappreciated? Or did she secretly hate all the white and black witches because they treated her like crap? I did like reading about Gabriel and about how he got stuck as a fain. It was great to learn more about his family and his personality. He seemed to be quite confident and happy with himself. I also found it funny, how Gabriel and Michele left messages in Michele's diary even though the diary was supposed to be private. Definitely hope to read more about Gabriel and his efforts to solve 'the fain problem' in Half Wild.